Carousel

Ever since she can remember, CC has had an inexplicable fear of carousels. She rode one with her cousin Dane when she was a baby, and had a blast. She rode on a huge carousel at Disneyworld when she was 10 months old, and loved it so much we went on it twice.

But ever since she turned 1, she's had a crippling fear of them. Nathan's Hot Dogs set up a mini-carnival at our grocery store last month, and she had close to a panic attack when I tried to put her on the miniature carousel!

But it seems as if she's getting over it. Yesterday we were at a local mall that has a large carousel in the middle of the food court. All the time we ate lunch, CC was eyeing the carousel and asking lots of questions. After lunch she asked if she could ride, "only a little horse, Mommy. Not a big one!" 

I figured she'd change her mind once we got close to it and she saw how large it was. But no, she waited patiently until it stopped, put her ticket in the box, and climbed aboard.

I put Little Man and Sweet Pea on the "carriage" bench (Little Man was in full-on meltdown mode, and the teenager operating the ride was looking distinctly nervous), and all of a sudden CC had a change of heart: "I don't want to sit on a horse! I want to ride on the bench!" So I put her down next to Little Man, and over his screaming, I yelled to the girl to start the ride.

Much to my surprise, once the ride started, CC asked to get on a horse! And she loved it -- she was laughing and shouting the whole time, and was very unhappy when the ride ended. (Little Man, fortunately, stopped screaming once we started moving.)

Bravo to my oldest for riding the scary carousel! She was so proud of herself, and I was proud too.